12/06/00 4:35 p.m.
Loser Takes Some
A plan to help the GOP in 2004.

By NR’s John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru

rover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform has an idea for giving the GOP presidential candidate a leg up in 2004: Have more states follow the Maine and Nebraska model of not assigning electors on a winner-take-all basis. Two of Maine's four electoral votes and three of Nebraska's five are assigned to presidential candidates on the basis of who carries the state's individual congressional districts, with the remaining two in each state going to the candidate who wins a state majority. Although neither state did it this year, it's possible for Maine and Nebraska to split their electoral votes. Call it the "loser-takes-some" model.

What if these rules had been in place this year in, say, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania? Instead of the Democrats walking off with 18, 15, and 23 electoral votes in these three states, respectively, about 25 of them would have switched into the GOP column — and nobody would be talking about Florida.

"The purpose is to make voter fraud less possible," says Norquist. "Under today's rules, an extra 100,000 voters on John Conyers' district delivers only one vote — not every electoral vote in the state."

Of course, the loser-takes-some model could also help Democrats in certain places — Al Gore might have done better in Texas, for example, if these rules had been operative there. But what makes Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania unique is that they have Republicans control the state government, from the governor's office to the state legislature. Much has been made of how prominent GOP governors like Michigan's John Engler, New Jersey's Christie Whitman, and Pennsylvania's Tom Ridge failed to deliver their states to George W. Bush. Perhaps this is a way they can start to help him for 2004.